Spinning rings



June 25, 1957 w, KATERMAN 2,796,727

SPINNING RINGS Filed Jan. 6, 1955 INVENTOR fly les W/fa Z'emnan ATTORNEY United States atent SPINNING RINGS Myles W. Katerrnan, Bloomsburg, Pa., assignor to The Magee Carpet Company, Bloomsburg, Pa, 2 corporation of Pennsylvania Application January 6, 1955, Serial No. 480,137

1 Claim. (Cl. 57-119) This invention generally pertains to the spinning rings which are utilized with textile spinning frames. More particularly this invention relates to spinning rings of this type which are constructed in such a manner that the life of associated parts in greatly increased and the overall usefulness of the ring materially improved.

In the usual spinning and twisting operations currently being carried out by those in the textile industry, the body of fibers are twisted into a yarn or thread by passing from the feed rolls to the spindle by means of a small, lightweight guide or traveler freely mounted for rotation about the spindle. In general, these travelers consist of small metallic wire clips which are hooked loosely over the rims of a ring mounted coaxially with the spindle and adapted to be raised and lowered along the length of the spindle to give uniform distribution of the spun material thereon. Such rings are commonly made of metal and are very accurately machined and highly polished to provide smooth, true bearing surfaces against which the traveler may ride as it moves about the spindle during the spinning process.

Since the traveler moves over the surface of the spinning ring at a very high speed, it has heretofore been absolutely necessary that some form of lubrication be provided. A great deal of thought has been given to this problem and many intricate devices have been worked out in an attempt to uniformly supply lubricants to rings in the proper amounts. Despite the utmost care in the use of these devices, the textile industry has generally considered it inevitable that a certain proportion of the production of a machine would be spoiled by virtue of the lubricant from the rings getting on the thread or yarn. The actual cost of the lubricant used as well as the loss of product due to spoilage constitute a considerable portion of the expense involved in the manufacture of spun textiles.

It is an object of this invention to provide a spinning ring which will eliminate the necessity of using lubricants to facilitate the movement of the traveler upon the ring. It is a further object of this invention to provide a spinning ring which will increase the life of the traveler which moves over the surface of the ring. An additional object is to provide a spinning ring which will provide increased safety in the spinning room and a decrease in the noise from the operation thereof. A further object is to provide a spinning ring which will not need lubrication and which will therefore eliminate the possibility of the thread or yarn being soiled by lubricants. Other objects of this invention will become more apparent after reading the following detailed description and examining the drawing.

An example of a spinning ring manufactured in accordance with this invention is shown in the accompanying drawing. Figure l is sectional elevation of a ring mounted in a ring rail; and Figure 2 is a plain view of the structure shown in Figure 1. In the drawing, the spinning ring is of circular shape and is mounted in ring rail Patented June 25, 1957 'ice 1 of a spinning frame. The ring is constructed fiom solid superpolyamide material, as will be described hereinafter, and has oppositely laterally projecting apertured lugs 2 for mounting on a ring The outer wall of the ring extending below the lugs 2, is off-set inwardly to provide a shoulder 3 that rests on the top of the rail 1. The lowermost portion of the outer wall'is curved inwardly and downwardly, as at 4, and merges with the lower edge of the inner wall 5. The top surface 6 of the ring is slightly beveled downwardly from the outer to the inner edge in merging relation with a downwardly curved ledge 7 extending around the top inner edge of the ring. The inner wall 5 extends downwardly from the lower edge of the ledge 7 and is tapered in the direction of the outer wall. The lower edge of the ring at the point of merger .between the inner and outer walls is rounded, as at 8,

to provide a track for the lower hooked end of a metal traveler 9. The traveler is formed from a strip of metal having its ends bent to form the upper end lower hooks shown in the drawing. The upper hook engages over the top surface 6 of the ring and the lower hook engages over the lower rounded edge 8. Thread 10 engages traveler 9 as shown.

In accordance with this invention, I construct a spinning ring from a material comprising a superpolyamide. The superpolyamides used in carrying out this invention are described in U. S. P. 2,130,523 to W. T. Carothers and are derived from the reaction of diamines of the formula NHzRCI-IzNHz and dicarboxylic acids (and their amide forming derivatives) of the formula HOOCCl-IzR'CHzCOOH in which R and R are divalent hydrocarbon radicals and in which R has a chain length of at least two carbon atoms. Within this class, the most desirable superpolyamides in carrying the present invention into effect are prepared from diamines of the formula NH2(CH2)1:NH2 an dicarboxylic acids of formula HOOC(CH2)yCOOH in which x is at least 4 and y at least 3. A preferred superpolyamide is a reaction product of hexamethylene diamine and adipic acid. A specific superpolyamide of the type described above is sold to the industry under the tradename nylon.

The superpolyamide ring of this invention has numerous advantages over the metal rings heretofore employed in the textile industry. First of all the superpolyamide ring materially increases the life of the traveler. By Way of example, in a controlled life test a steel traveler running on a steel spinning ring had to be replaced after only 88 hours of operation-while a steel traveler running on a superpolyamide spinning ring showed no appreciable wear after 300 hours. In addition, the use of a superpolyamide spinning ring rather than a steel spinning ring drastically reduced the noise level which previously existed in the spinning room. The above two advantages of a superpolyamide spinning ring result in increased safety in the spinning room for two reasons. First of all, if the traveler wears rapidly (as is the case with the steel ring) it is liable to fly off of the spinning ring unexpectedly, possibly hitting a worker, or falling into the other machines which are nearby. Secondly, the use of a superpolyamide ring is a great safety factor in that the reduced noise level in the spinning room permits the operators to more easily converse with each other and allows the operators to better gauge the proper operation of their machines by listening to the operation thereof.

An important feature of this invention is the fact that a superpolyamide spinning ring eliminates the necessity for the attachment of lubricating devices and the irksome problems which go hand in hand with lubrication. Accordingly, economies are achieved when one does not have to purchase lubricating oil and greater outputs are possible r1 2 when .there is no loss "of thethread or yarn due to oil soiling.

Probably one of the most important features of this invention, and certainly one of the most startling and unexpected beneficial :featuresof this invention is that by using a superpolyamide spinning ring-and -a.-'s te'eltraveler the 1 condition known as pigta'iling in a the :spinning art doesnot occur to .any damaging degree. --By-Wayof X-- planation, the condition-known as pigtaili-ng usually occurred just after:thespinningframeows stopped and was duefto lthe .fact :that thewotat ional inertia' 'of the traveler ring caused the. traveler ring to continue to travel around the spinning ring several t-urns thus taking the yarn Lfmmthe bobbin with-it until: it drifted to a stop.

The slack yarn unwound-from the bobbin in thisu'nanner wasltermed. a ipigtail. i- These --pig tails-often caused troubleintthe next spinning operation- 'due to broken ends, heavy twistcross p1y,:etc. Prior art workers have-attempted to decrease :pigtailing by stopping the spinning 7 frame in such a position that no-slack yarn will be present-:ebut stopping the frame at precisely the correct position is a .diflicult task. Attempts have also been made to decrease ;pigtailing by using a heavier and more expensive traveler in the hope of increasing the drag on the traveler on .the'iring-sand thus helping to cut down the size of the pig tails. It has been found, however, that when the frame is stopped in certain positions, a pig tail will be put in the yarn. regardless of the weight of the steel traveler orrthe vsteel'spinning ring. Also when using steel rings,

which require oiling, it is-almost impossible to supply thesame .amountof oil or lubricant to each steel ring, with the resultthat one traveler will drag more than another.

It is1therefore...quite surprising and highly important to note that by using the superpolyamide spinning rings of this invention, the formation of pigtails is largely curtailed and eliminates one of the operators most worrisome problems. The superpolyamide spinning ring ap parently causes more drag on the steel traveler, thus decreasing'the damaging effects of rotational inertia.

Also, the use of a superpolyamide spinning ring eliminatesihe. necessityof taking measures toprevent corrosion of the ring and permitsone to operate without any fear that the thread or yarn will be contaminated by the corrosion products which might be scraped or shaken loose during the spinning operation.

The superpolyarnide spinning ring of this invention may be cast or molded in a manner well known to those skilled in the plastics art. It is also possible to produce the ring by machining a slab .of superpolyamide, but-this method is generally more expensive than casting or molding. I claim: I A spinning ring comprising an annular body formed v entirely of snperpolyamid-e' materia-L thetop edge of said body being beveled downwardly and inwardly into merging relation with a downwardly and inwardly curved ledge merging withthe top of the inner Wall of said body, said inner wall being inclined downwardly and outwardly towards the loweredge of said body, a metaltravelencomprising a flat metalstrip-in bearingengagement' Withfthe' inner wall of said body throughout-its length sai'd strip having a-h-ookat its lOWIBIldTO engage over the lower edge of said body, and a hookatits' upper end of greater 'length than the'lower hook extending over said curved ledge and having" bearing engagement with said beveled edge throughout its length.

- References':Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES'PATENTS 

